Facebook is clearly dead serious about Stories. Merging Fb & Messenger Stories, launching on Fb Lite, opening collaborative Stories for Events and Groups. The war on Snapchat is just getting started https://t.co/psddc0McFZ

True Fit, a personalization company focusing on clothes and shoes added something new they’re calling “Shop for Others”. The new feature allows every True Fit user to now create profiles for friends and family. Users can toggle between fit, size, and style recommendations for themselves and/or for family and friends.

Despite fashion being a trillion-dollar industry, this type of tech is not exactly commonplace. Clothes and shoes are notoriously difficult for gifting. For example, ill-fitting clothes are a bummer and it’s the top reason people avoid buying online. Romney Evans, co-founder of True Fit said he’s excited to finally have an easy way to buy the right-sized clothes for his wife.

Hey Calvin Klein fans: Some collaboration news…

Chief Creative Officer at Calvin Klein Raf Simons collaborated with indie musicians The xx and photographer and filmmaker Alasdair McLellan on the creative concept and direction for the music video for The xx’s latest song “I Dare You”. It includes several faces from the CK world like Millie Bobby Brown, Ashton Sanders, Paris Jackson, and Lulu and Ernesto Cervantes.

The high-growth app named Covet Fashion was on Cheddar.Live today talking about how it adds experiences for users beyond just adding clothes to a virtual cart and then buying. That’s very straightforward with no differentiator.

While everyone thinks “dudes/guys” when they hear gaming, the Covet Fashion app adds a twist to that because its gaming aspect comes in the form of ‘style challenges’ – and more and more women (around 600,000 daily!) are having fun competing in these challenges. They can also choose to buy clothes without playing. Brands on Covet include Rachel Zoe, Calvin Klein, Nicole Miller, BCBG Max Azaria, Rebecca Minkoff, and Michael Kors. To learn more about Cheddar, go to the Cheddar sizzle reel (click here)

60 Minutes also did a segment on influencers, focusing on the vlogger-Viner-type-of-influencer. You can watch that here.

Sadly, Bloomberg.com and 60 Minutes failed to delve into the subsets within the world of influence marketing, e.g., B2B experts, brand-builders and enterprise-level influencers outlined by Malcolm Gladwell, Brian Fanzo and Rachel Lou Miller.

Or perhaps both media outlets wanted to keep things tight by focusing on the glamour aspect, for impact, and to not confuse viewers.

(Hitting on all facets of the vast influencer ecosystem might have caused confusion.)

Regardless, Bloomberg.com and 60 Minutes failed to mention the many controversies within influencer marketing such as pay-to-play, inconsistent disclosure, native ads, expertise or “lack of expertise”, etc. Why the puzzled look on your face when I say “lack of expertise”? Did you foolishly assume that ALL influencers are experts? No, honey, many are far from experts. Many ARE experts, but many more are NOT. . . And that’s what this article is about. Fasten your seatbelts — a mega rant is coming.

If an influencer doesn’t have expertise, many times that’s FINE – yes, fine. You read that correctly. This is true when it comes to fashion, accessories and footwear influencers. Why? Because there’s visible proof that she (or he) tried on the clothes, shoes, bag or whatever.

On the other hand, a person who is supposedly influential in the world of tech gadgets MUST MUST MUST possess expertise or at least niche knowledge. Think about it. If you’re little more than “a big booming personality” and you don’t know shit from shinola, you really should stick to what’s tactile, and lean on aesthetics. Y’know, stuff which for the most part does not require expertise. THIS is where agencies drop the ball. Agencies, you’re free to send me hate mail, but deep down you know I’m right. You look at follower counts instead of assessing expertise. Shame on you. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the shameful things you charge thousands for. Hate on. You know I’m telling the truth. I have friends in marketing and other disciplines — even yours. And we swap stories boo.

However: I must point out something salient: Surveys have shown that consumers don’t care about expertise when they clearly see an influencer looking great in clothes, etc. Let’s be clear: In a perfect world, influencers would always disclose, but, again, research has consistently shown: when a FASHION image on Instagram looks good and inspires, most Instagram users couldn’t care less if they see a disclaimer or not. . . There’s a reason for this kind of reaction, and once you understand it, it’ll be an a-ha moment. [ Scroll past the break below to see the answer. There’s a reason why I put FASHION in all-caps ]

-Instagram model wants her own product line, and has over 15M followers-91% of those followers are men, mostly middle age

If you want to turn your social media 'influence' into a profitable product brand, you have to make sure your audience is also your customer. pic.twitter.com/Kjrh5MAvrC

So, back to the question:
The reason is: If clothes look good, expertise isn’t NEEDED (in most cases). What looks good looks good, simple as that. But for the many verticals that AREN’T driven by looks (examples: smartphones, tablets, laptops), you almost always NEED AN EXPERT. One example: Consumers care about expertise when it comes to a new smartphone and what it can/can’t do for them. Many agencies think expertise doesn’t matter, and agencies are CORRECT in this thinking when it comes to fashion and, to some extent, foodie and travel influencers. Just three examples. BUT NOT FOR TECH. Let me repeat. NOT FOR TECH.

PR agencies of all sizes have dropped the ball – I’ve seen it first hand – inviting fashionistas to tech events. (I can hear the groans of “But that’s what the client wants! So we’re giving it to them!” Sigh) For the love of God, please tell me how this is a go-to strategy. It shouldn’t be. Here’s why: Anyone, pretty faces included, can plagiarize a tech review – I’ve seen it done. And if the blogger doesn’t add a video to prove expertise, deception can (and sadly, does) flourish and A CONSUMER HAS NO PROTECTION AGAINST IT.

But there are wonderful, noteworthy influencers such as Marques Brownlee with a memorable aesthetic + strong personality which lends itself nicely to video. But waaaay more germane to my point is Mr. Brownlee’s EXPERTISE (click here). His expertise truly precedes all his other positive traits. Put simply, he knows his techie shit inside and out as a real expert must.

There needs to be more Marques Brownlee’s in TECHNOLOGY INFLUENCER marketing. Agencies need to understand this – a pretty face or clown or big booming personality who LACKS expertise is, in several cases (such as tech), a disservice to clients and clients’ target consumers. It’s 2017 and PR agencies are sadly still more concerned with low turnout at client events (Click here for video rant) and other superficial bullshit such as follower counts, which are easily manipulated by nefarious people. And when you thought Klout was important (spoiler: it was never important) you looked at Klout. Again, shame on you. And if you say tech isn’t your forte, well why not begin with logical and simple tactics? ACTIONABLE EXAMPLE: Look at who Marques Brownlee follows, then look at the engagement of those people, and then invite them. 🙄 Note: Doing that is not the cure-all, it’s just ONE thing you can do as a good agency. Even that one tactic is better than what many agencies currently do, especially boutique ones in New York City. So, my eyes rolleth. 🙄

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the “big booming personalities” who are considered influencers (many of whom are signed with agencies) yet – let’s be real – they’re really “experts at nothing.” Let’s take a minute to consider the fans of those types of E.A.N. influencers (the “experts at nothing”).

Here’s the short analysis. [ Read past the CNN tweet below to get into the weeds ] Just because you have a large viewership doesn’t necessarily mean your viewers consider you an expert in anything. A percentage of your viewers will be competitors 😮😮 and/or people looking to COPY EVERYTHING you do. 😮😮 If you’re a vlogger or ‘grammer, you should’ve known this from day one, via your own instinct. If this is news to you (the fact that some people are looking at you only to copy you), well, uh, sorry? I can’t think of any other words for you other than “Are you that naïve?”

One of the biggest social media influencers in the game has a word of advice: Get a real job.

Many of the E.A.N.’s fans are very young “fanboys” and “fangirls” (we’re talking high school freshmen and often much younger!) so those fans are unlikely themselves to have expertise in anything. (Hey, maybe they relate to the E.A.N. influencer because of that common ground. Or maybe there’s an emotional bond? A spiritual bond? Who the fuck knows. The fans being children or very very young adults, it’s natural that most won’t be experts at anything. Experts who are still in junior high and high school are the exception, not the norm)

. . . And so 3 the questions are:

(1) Are those fanboys/fangirls simply watching and listening to “aspire to be like” that E.A.N. influencer? In many cases, yes.

(3) Do they sit there watching the E.A.N. influencer with a credit card in hand, ready to buy whatever the E.A.N. influencer shills? Highly doubtful, but I could be wrong. And children shouldn’t use credit cards anyway. #JustSayin #JustMyOpinion

(Or worse, are the kids looking to emulate E.A.N. influencers as a career!?!? GOD HELP US! [Side rant: If the overwhelming majority of 16-year-olds today are grooming themselves to be professional influencers on social media, then I hate to say it but we’re fucked as a society and the future’s not bright. Let’s hope this ISN’T the case. I strongly doubt the U.S. Department of Labor puts “influencer” high on the priority list of what America needs.])

I’m sure I’ll receive hate mail from agents who stand to gain via the flawed narrative that says influencer marketing “works better than anything else”, never mind that it’s overcaffeine-ated with hype, bad actors, pimps, etc. To be crass, I’m pointing my finger at the agents who stand to gain by aggressively face-fucking us with a bastardized flavor of wholesale influencer koolaid. This type of koolaid does not respect very crucial nuances.

To be clear, I’m not against influencer marketing. Quite the contrary: I’m a proponent of influencer marketing. Or perhaps I have a bias for expertencers (“influencers who have expertise”, the opposite of E.A.N.’s)

. . . I’ll tell you what I’m against: I’m specifically against willy-nilly influencer vetting and pairings, and agencies are the most culpable because they exploit uninformed clients.

P.S.: No one should call himself or herself an influencer. A third party needs to do that. Self-proclaimed influencers must be taken with a grain of salt. (Honestly, it’s best to totally avoid this type of fauxfluencer. They tend to be unpleasant to even be in the same room with.) Finally, there are influencer lists compiled by humans and there are influencer lists compiled by algorithms. The latter is usually the real deal; the former is fleeting and subject to all sorts of immature favoritism, cliques, etc. When someone asks me what I “did” to get onto the Cision Top 50 influencer list, I shrug and say “I honestly don’t know. You’d need to ask the algorithm as to how I got onto that list.” (That specific list was compiled by an algorithm, not by a person.)